


You Can Break

by another_Hero



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alcohol, Bar, F/F, Pool & Billiards, au: stevie is a bartender at the wobbly elm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-07 12:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21458311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/another_Hero/pseuds/another_Hero
Summary: “That’s so sweet of you,” said Alexis, “but I just startedthisdrink, and I drove here, so.” By Stevie’s calculation, there was a zero percent chance Alexis had driven here—she wouldn’t want to be pressed into leaving alone. But then, she hadn’t come with anyone else, and Ray’s Saturday-night taxi service didn’t run on Tuesdays.
Relationships: Stevie Budd/Alexis Rose
Comments: 32
Kudos: 95
Collections: Schitt's Creek Open Fic Night 2.0





	You Can Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yeah_alright](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeah_alright/gifts).

> I hope you enjoy, yeah_alright!
> 
> thanks to Distractivate for beta reading!

The woman was way overdressed for a Tuesday night in Schitt’s Creek, was the first thing Stevie noticed about her. Full face of makeup, hair like she was going to be in a wedding, the kind of short dress and heels it took practice to wear. Stevie had never seen her before—not just that she wasn’t from town, but she was the kind of person, if Stevie saw her in Elmdale, she’d duck out of the way to stare. She stood at the door, appraising, not quite haughty; she walked to the bar like she wasn’t sure what she was going to find here but was certain it would want to be found.

And when she ordered, she did it like she and Stevie were best friends. A greeting first, “Hi” and a grin like they shared a secret. Maybe being so obviously beautiful made you easy with strangers. Stevie wasn’t going to give her any trouble.

“Hi,” she said back, expectantly.

“This place is so  _ cute! _ ” It really wasn’t. “It’s like the place a biker gang would hang out in a movie!”

Maybe being so obviously beautiful made you think of anything you liked in attractiveness terms; Stevie, she guessed,  _ would be so pretty, like, if you just— _

“Can I get you anything?”

“Um,  _ yes _ ,” the woman said, “a vodka soda, please.”

Stevie gave her a single heavy nod, made the drink, slid it across to her. “It’s four bucks.”

The woman frowned. “Four? You mean, forty?”

A smirk started on Stevie’s face. “Our vodka’s not that good,” she said.

The woman took a sip. “Oh! No! it! is! not!” But then she grinned widely and stuck out her hand, hanging from the wrist like she expected Stevie to kiss it. If there was money in the hand, Stevie hadn’t seen her get it. “I am Alexis Rose,” she said.

So maybe that was a handshake. Stevie reached out and shook a little. The woman did not seem to care what was happening to her hand at all. “Stevie.”

“Well,  _ Stevie _ ,” she said, “I think  _ we _ are going to be  _ friends _ .” Then she handed Stevie ten dollars, because they weren’t friends, Stevie was a bartender. Stevie put her change on the counter; Alexis didn’t take any of it.

_ Unlikely _ , Stevie didn’t say. Of course that was why Alexis was here, to meet people. She wasn’t an alcoholic, probably; there was no way she got this dressed up all the time. This was the kind of dressing up you did for a  _ purpose _ . On the other hand—noting the careless way Alexis handled her clutch, remembering how easily she’d walked into the bar in platform heels—maybe she  _ did _ get this dressed up all the time.

Dane came up next to her and ordered, “Beer.” He never tipped, so Stevie took her time, listening to him chat up Alexis. If Alexis had glanced over, Stevie would have made a warning gesture, found some way to convey that Dane was the worst. But she was probably into that, overly self-assured guys who would cover her forty-dollar drinks. She was giving him that same full-beam attention she’d been giving Stevie a few minutes ago. Alexis still hadn’t taken any of the six singles Stevie had left on the bar. If Dane distracted her, that would be a hell of a tip on a four-dollar drink. So she didn’t want Alexis to get into any trouble, but she wasn’t going to interfere until she had to.

Except that what she heard Alexis say was, “I don’t think so, thank you,” with a tilt of her head, and she pulled that attention away, withdrawing into her drink, her change still on the counter.

Stevie set down Dane’s glass. “Four dollars.”

He gave her a credit card and told her to keep the tab open, and Stevie listened while behind her Dane said, “Come on.”  _ Come on _ was the sort of thing that meant Stevie had to listen. But Alexis, looking like that, she probably had practice saying no. “One drink,” Dane coaxed.

“That’s so sweet of you,” said Alexis, “but I just started  _ this  _ drink, and I drove here, so.” By Stevie’s calculation, there was a zero percent chance Alexis had driven here—she wouldn’t want to be pressed into leaving alone. But then, she hadn’t come with anyone else, and Ray’s Saturday-night taxi service didn’t run on Tuesdays.

“I’ll make sure you get home safe,” said Dane, and Stevie added a second drink to his bill. Alexis didn’t deserve to have to deal with the scummiest guy in Schitt’s Creek, but neither did she. She made the drink a vodka soda, not that it mattered.

“I’m good, thanks,” said Alexis.

“I don’t give up that easy,” said Dane. Stevie turned to face them.

“You should,” Alexis muttered.

“What’s that, baby?”

She turned to face him, smile back on. “All right,” she said, gesturing to the pool table. “I’ll play you for it.”

Dane looked her up and down and clearly assessed her as threat level low. “How’s that?”

“I win, you buy a round for the bar, and you don’t talk to me the rest of the night. You win, you can buy me a drink and—stand there while I drink it.”

“Look, if you want to play games,” Dane said. “It’d be faster if you just said yes.”

Alexis walked over to the table, steady on those impossible shoes, and started gathering the balls. “You can break,” she said. Stevie slid her six singles off the bar; they were fair game to claim for tips now.

“No way,” said Dane. “I’m a nice guy. Ladies first.”

Stevie watched the whole game open-mouthed. Alexis, bent over the table in that dress—could  _ play _ . Dane got his hands on a cue exactly once, and he didn’t make a thing of the opportunity. Somehow Alexis never had to tug her dress down—her movements were fluid and intentional, like she could predict the behavior of her dress as well as the trajectories of the balls. But she gave a little grin and two claps when she sank the eight ball where she said she would. “Well,” she said, booping Dane on the nose, “that was fun. Good night, Dan.”

“Dane.”

“Oh,” Alexis said, like she’d lost her train of thought. She came back up to the bar. “A round for everyone on Dan,” she called. Stevie knew she ought to watch him, see how he reacted, but Alexis was coming back toward her now.

There weren’t enough people in the bar for a proper cheer. Alexis slid her barely-touched drink back across the bar. In another world that probably made sense, if you’d left it unattended like that. 

“Stevie,” she said, and Stevie took a smug thrill in the knowledge that Alexis hadn’t misremembered  _ her _ name, on accident or on purpose, and was flashing that whole bright gaze onto her, “make mine—whatever you’re having.”

It was nice of her; Stevie hadn’t pegged her for the kind-gesture type. “It’s just, I’m trying to drink less, for my skin.” Stevie tried to react as though that was a sentence she understood, a sentence that absolutely made sense. After she took a new pitcher over to the table in the corner and added it to Dane’s tab, she served herself a coke and put a lemon in it because that was about the fanciest she could do at the Wobbly Elm. She rang it up as a rum and coke; fuck Dane. Stevie looked around the bar and found he’d left, his card still here. Didn’t really matter; he’d be back tomorrow, or if not, he’d be back Thursday. Alexis was still watching her. She’d been watching her through this whole process, and it was getting to be a little much. She tried raising her eyebrows expectantly.

“You know, you’re  _ so pretty _ ,” said Alexis.

“That’s what they say,” Stevie said. “If I just—”

When she didn’t finish the sentence, Alexis said, “If you just what?”

“I don’t know, um, tried? Dressed, y’know, like you?”

Alexis wrinkled her forehead, then smoothed it immediately. “I mean,” she said, “most people can’t, so. I really like the hot-bartender look. You make it work.”

“Thanks,” said Stevie, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“So, um, what time do you get off?”

After watching Alexis in that game, she couldn’t imagine why she’d expected her to be the teasing type, but that was more direct than she’d planned for. “One,” she said. Her voice didn’t have as much sound in it as it was supposed to. She stood right up to the bar; Alexis had several inches on her, which would have been hotter up close.

Alexis nodded. “Okay,” she said, “um, and is it usually this quiet between now and one?”

Stevie nodded. She kept nodding. “Yep,” she said, still nodding, “it is.”

“Great,” said Alexis, “so maybe we could—”

Either she was about to ask her permission to sit and talk through the rest of her shift, or she was about to ask her to go out back for a quick hookup. Stevie would say yes either way, no question.

“—hang out, til then?”

Stevie considered trying to smile, but it was too embarrassing. “We can,” she said. “Hang out. Til then.”

“Oh, yay!” said Alexis.

“And you know,” Stevie added, because Alexis didn’t seem like she was trying to embarrass  _ her _ , “I have a pool table at my place. If you don’t have to—get back to something.”

“Oh, um,” said Alexis, “hard yes to your place, maybe no on pool? It’s just, I’ve had to play for my life about three too many times, you know? The fun kind of goes out of it.”

Stevie did not know. She wasn’t even sure what an appropriate reaction was to that kind of statement.

“But that’s great,” Alexis said, with another clap, “because we can just skip the pool and get right to—” she leaned in close; Stevie matched her expectantly. “This part?”

Stevie nodded minutely, and Alexis’ lips were on her, as bright and all-consuming as her gaze; Stevie felt lit up. Then she was gone. Stevie opened her eyes a little slower than she ought to. “Anyway,” Alexis said, “probably shouldn’t do  _ too _ much of that here?”

“Oh, we can—go into the back,” Stevie said. “The regulars can serve themselves.”

Alexis grinned widely. “We are going to have  _ so _ much fun,” she said, and Stevie believed her—she was sure that anything you ever did with Alexis was fun, if she wanted it to be. Some people attracted that kind of thing. As long as she was sharing, Stevie would take it, and bask.

Ronnie smirked at her as she led Alexis through the side door, and Stevie tilted her head at the bar with a shrug. There was something to be said for it, spending your time behind the bar; it wasn’t the worst job. But Ronnie wouldn’t blame her, no one could blame her, for stepping out when a reason came.

Later, after a necessarily quick round in the supply room and the unnerving giddy realization that Alexis still planned to stay until closing, after she’d opened the door of her car for Alexis less for the sake of chivalry and more to be sure she’d have a place to sit, she realized—“You didn’t drive here?”

“No!” Alexis waved her hand away. “No, we don’t have a car, no, um, Ray—has a taxi service?”

“That only runs on Saturdays,” said Stevie.

“Mm, yeah, well, he runs it other days for me.” Stevie understood why: Alexis smiled at her, and she forgot what they were even doing here and leaned in to kiss her.

When Alexis pulled back after a long moment, she murmured, “That was very cute, but I cannot have sex with you in this car.”

“You’d be surprised,” Stevie shot back, but she managed to remember where she lived.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] You Can Break](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26893612) by [GoLBPodfics (GodOfLaundryBaskets)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GodOfLaundryBaskets/pseuds/GoLBPodfics)


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